Tuesday Bolts – 11.5.13

Kyle Wagner of Deadspin on Russell Westbrook: “Steph Curry rearranges the physical laws of basketball; Westbrook simply overpowers them. He blows by help defense that, for most other guards, would have arrived on time. He attacks defenses at angles—and speeds—that others don’t because they aren’t strong or fast or brave enough to get to the spaces, like in that run along the right baseline at the 35-second mark in the video above. It’s the unpredictability of a truckload of talent and confidence, like a rocket-armed quarterback jamming a laser beam pass into quadruple coverage and making it work. Sometimes it will make a turnover, or just an inefficient play. But damn if it isn’t fun to watch.”

Marc Stein of ESPN.com has OKC sixth: “Question: What can bump you up the charts instantly after you just went to Minnesota and got drilled by 19 points in the club’s worst defeat in more than two seasons? Answer: The thunderbolt news that Russell Westbrook is back in the lineup about a month earlier than anyone expected.”

Kevin Martin: “This is such a fun team to play on. Nobody is trying to lead the league in scoring here.”

Kelly Dwyer of BDL: “This could all a bit of a bummer, as Martin, Durant and Westbrook all seemed to have a solid relationship in the trio’s first and only season together. Working without the benefit of a training camp following the shocking deal that sent James Harden to Houston, Martin started the season exceedingly well, and the Thunder finished 2012-13 with the league’s top-ranked offense. Martin and the Thunder disappointed in the postseason after Westbrook went down with an injury, but Kevin’s fleeing to Minnesota seemed to have more to do with Oklahoma City’s insistence on missing the luxury tax than it did ill-will. Maybe Kevin Durant is to be criticized for leading the league’s top offense and the NBA in scoring at an efficiency rate that still boggles this basketball mind. Or maybe Kevin Martin just misspoke on his way toward applauding Rick Adelman’s fluid offense in Minnesota, one that he’s loved working in during three different stops in Sacramento, Houston, and Minnesota. That’s probably it. I don’t think there were any shots fired here. Pun intended.”

Perk clarified his tweet: “Let me clear something up. I wasn’t talking about leaving OKC. I was talking to some of my family members. I love playing here. #frommyheart”

Ian Levy of Hickory High: “Right now the Thunder are still mostly stuck in that place the Heat were in three years ago, where talent defines them more than execution or creativity. Evolution is not an evenly distributed process, it happens in spurts. The playoffs are the perfect primordial soup of raw materials to rapidly accelerate that process, but the Thunder missed the opportunity to re-immerse their most crucial elements and configurations last year. So as wonderful as it was to see Westbrook out there being Westbrook last night, it was also a nagging reminder that while the rest of the league can wrap themselves in the hope (in some cases rapidly dwindling) of new rosters and new systems, the Thunder have been on pause for six months.”

Just a thought, but do you think Washington would consider swapping Gortat and Perkins? The Wiz really think they should be competing. Unfortunately, their defense is a train wreck and Gortat hasn't been overly impressive in his debut. Enter Perkins. Perkins who is STILL a very good defender and who could quarterback the defensive communication.

Perkins is not a great player. He's barely a good player, but he still does one thing at an elite level. The Wizards need precisely that one thing more than anybody else, and they are a team that has a track record of making reactionary trades. Perkins for Gortat works money-wise, and skirts around the newly traded player rules by being one for one.

ohhhhh myyyyyyyy god brooks just contradicted him self BIG TIME in the TGR thingy.

brooks:you gotta put yourself in a position to earn those mins, we have a team full of guys that DESERVE mins, and i couldnt play, thats just the way it is. its not a FEEL GOOD league, its a league you have to make TOUGH decisions in"

"This is such a fun team to play on! There's no pressure to be the man for 15 mins a game because I don't have to run the second unit. I just go out there and shoot the ball. And nobody cares if I shit the bed in the playoffs :)"

I wonder what Hardens ceiling was on a team with KD and Russ being the alpha's of this team? You think he could have done much better than what he did his last season here? Martins numbers were down 2 as the third guy. Is 16 ppg worth a max?

@[corporate shill] People seem to ignore just how bad Westbrook's defense was in the first few years of his career. Durant was notably so bad that the stats guy for Dallas famously said he wouldn't take Durant if it cost him nothing to get him. Defense improves the longer players are in the league. Westbrook is at best a neutral defender now, Durant may be slightly above average.

@anonymous12345@Keith00 The Wizards have no cap space for the forseeable future. They will need to re-sign Gortat anyway just to have a center. Perkins is not an ideal contract, but the Wiz have traded for both Emeka Okafor (massively overpaid) and Nene (massively overpaid) just to fix one problem. They don't seem to care much about sound finances.

@okcjim I think he could have gotten to maybe 18-20 or so IMO and even been an all star. Manu has made it under similar conditions and it isnt uncommon for the team with the best record to get 3, sometimes 4, especially with their own coach. I could've made the argument for him in his last yr as a Thunder, over Lamarcus Aldridge or maybe Steve Nash

@Keith00@[corporate shill] KD is still prone to helping way too far off shooters and giving up big scoring nights to guys like Vince Carter, Caron Butler, even on a 10 day ass dudes like Alan Andersen who can make corner 3s.

@mattchant@anonymous12345 Side note, economics did not dictate that trade. None of the owners of the Thunder are in financial hardship, and the team is worth hundreds of millions of dollars more than what was paid for it. The team is not without revenue, the owners were simply unwilling to lose profits. There was no repo man waiting outside to take the arena if we went over the tax, no new economic downturn forcing the owners to make significant profits or else lose their homes. OKC absolutely could have afforded Harden, ownership CHOSE not to because they liked higher profits more than winning.

And that's their right as owners, but don't play into the media malaise saying OKC had to make that deal or else it would implode.

@mattchant@Keith00@anonymous12345 Washington did not anticipate their complete inability to defend. Should they ride that mistake back to the lottery or try to rectify it?. Perkins IS a high end defender. His lack of value comes from being a poor rebounder. If nothing changed except Perkins pulled down 10 rebounds a game (like Asik), he would be well worth the contract.

I never compared Wall-Beal to Westbrook-Durant, that comparison would be meaningless to the argument anyway. The fact is, the Wizards have no defensive personnel. Okafor was the difference between the Wiz being top 10 and apparently being bottom of the barrel. Perkins likely can't replicate that much, but the Wiz could probably make the playoffs in the East just by being middle of the pack defensively. Perkins could facilitate that. Individual defenders at center tend to have greater impact than anyone else. Look at Houston. Every time Asik was on the floor they were a pretty good defense, and every time he sat they cratered.

@Keith00@mattchant@anonymous12345 No, OKC is actually poor, and might trade a star for pennies on the dollar, because that's what their economics dictate. We've seen that happen. The idea that Perkins would be an upgrade for them over Gortat, because they need a defensive center rather than an offensive one (I suppose because they already have scorers in Wall and Beal.....who are better than Durant and Westbrook....wait, what?) is ludicrous. Perk also does NOT defend at an elite level, if he did he'd have a desirable contract. He'd be like Asik. He is NOT like Asik. If you proposed this to any Wizards fan they'd fall over laughing. Perkins does not help ANY team, at ANY level win more games than Gortat. If they wanted Perkins, why wouldn't they have just given US the Gortat package for him? We'd have tripped over ourselves saying yes.

@mattchant@Keith00@anonymous12345 Actually no. Though that is always part of a deal (is it any less valid than "OKC is poor, so they might trade a star for nothing"). The main point is that the Wizards want desperately to win games, but they can't win games with what is set to contend for worst defense in the league. Washington has scorers and creators, but no defenders. Perk defends at an elite level, and in the most important position for defense. Washington could use Perk's skills more than Gortat's, just as OKC could use Gortat's skills more than Perk's. That's not nearly as terrible a deal as we tend to thing, because we can only view Perk from the poor fitting underachieving perspective of our own team.

Yeah I really don't think they're gonna be able to start them both. If both were able to really force the issue offensively in the post, they might be able to make teams pay for playing too small. But Dwight and Asik aren't going to destroy anyone in the post IMO.... at least not to the extent that it negates advantages on the other end.

@f5alcon@eallen7@anonymous12345 they need to just go get Ryan Anderson and pieces for Asik, Amir Johnson and Steve Novak, or Paul Milsap but I think they'd have to wait til Dec 15, or hell even Channing Frye. Watching them take turns posting up Howard then Asik when they were in the game together was painful. A stretch 4 would benefit both Harden and Howard's game.

This is exactly my issue with KD's defense. He can be really good at times when he's on the ball. But he cheats in for rebounds (probably scheme related but still), helps too soon and too far, and gets snagged on screens too easily.

I'm not saying he's a bad defender at all, but teams like to attack him off the ball and it works...... a lot.

@[corporate shill]@Keith00 Part of my argument is that I don't really give Durant extra points for versatility unless he defends those other positions at a superior level. Durant traditionally is not very good against SGs because they are too quick for him. His versatility extends more to PF and C, where he is capable but easy to bully by bigger players.

@[corporate shill]@Keith00 I've always said he could defend like prime Tayshaun Prince if he wanted. That said, I just don't think he tries that hard nor is as aware as Prince was. Also, keep in mind that Durant is often hidden defensively against weaker scorers, so metrics can be a little skewed.

Durant isn't incapable of defending at a high level, it just doesn't seem that he does consistently. The same could be said of Westbrook, despite Westbrook having more defensive tools than Durant for his position.

@[corporate shill] That's fair, I just don't see where Durant excels on defense. He is a strong rebounder, but everything else is pretty average. He contests, but tends to sag too far off shooters. He isn't particularly strong or well positioned in the post. He does the job, but unless he's really locked in on a matchup he's pretty ordinary.

@[corporate shill]@Keith00 I applaud his versatility, but I don't think he defends any of those players at a particularly high level. His defense is kind of like Jeff Green's offense - acceptable at everything, but master at nothing. Green was an acceptable offensive player, but really only a little above average.